Abderhalden, Emil

Born Mar. 9, 1877; died Aug. 5, 1950. German biochemist and physiologist. From 1904 to 1945 he worked in Berlin and Halle; beginning in 1946 he headed the department of physiological chemistry at the University of Zurich.

Abderhalden was the author of numerous works devoted to the study of the biological role and structure of proteins. In 1916 he synthesized a polypeptide from 19 amino acids, after he and E. Fischer had established the similarity between synthetic polypeptides and natural peptones. He investigated the role played by fats, vitamins, and hormones in nutrition and discovered the so-called protective enzymes which form in the organism during pregnancy, with tumors, and so on. He was the author of the Textbook of Physiological Chemistry (Russian translation, Moscow-Leningrad, 1934).